It's been a while since my last post, mainly because its been the same-old same-old. There have been some new trails opened up in the Sonoran Preserve and a trailhead/parking lot at Apache Wash on Dove Valley Rd.  The trails are really nice and worth a ride.

Anyway, the Old Klein Pulse Race, now 18 years old has started having some trouble, phantom shifts, skipping chain, that sort of thing.  I was on the verge of using it as an excuse to get a new bike, but being the cheapskate that I am, I opted for parts.  First, I replaced the chain, hoping that would fix the skipping. It actually made it worse.  I swapped that out with an old use chain that was better than the old one I had been using.  That made the skipping a little better, but still not good.  Out of my old crap box, I found a SRAM 8 speed cassette that I used once and didn't like because of the gear spacing, 11x34 with huge jumps between 1, 2, and 3.  It cured the skipping, so that meant the old cassette was worn on the three largest gears where all the skipping happened.  On to Amazon where I ordered a new 8 speed cassette with the largest was a 30.  Since I hadn't solved the phantom shift, which was dropping off the middle to the small chainring too often to keep me happy, I also ordered two chainrings 22 and 32.  THe big chainring hasn't caused any problems, so it stays on the bike.

The chainrings arrived in 2 days and I swapped them out in a twenty minute frenzy.  Presto! No more phantom shifts.  The cassette arrived a few days later and now all the problems are solved and my new bike is still just a dream.

Speaking of new, I replaced the suspension fork about a year ago with a sort of cheap Rock Shok.  Its heavier than the old Judy XC, which only lasted 17 years, but works ok.  In the world of strong, light and cheap, pick two, I opt for strong and cheap.  If I want to go faster, I'll need to work on the light with diet and exercise rather than dollars.

I got to thinking about what is still original on my ancient bike, so here it is:
Frame
Stem
Brakes (V brakes, of course the pads have been replaced several times)
Brake levers
Front and rear derailleurs
Seat post

It used to be, when I started riding in Phoenix that people would say, "You need a new bike." that was 8 years ago.  Now I hear, "Wow, that's a classic!" Crazy Joe gave me the perfect response, "No, it's just old.  I'm the classic."